How to Cross the Street, When You're Small (Like Toy Story)
by Movimationguy
Summary: We all know what happens whenever Ms. Frizzle is around, right? But what happens one day, when she doesn't show up? The kids get themselves into a tiny little problem, but without Ms. Frizzle how do they fix it? Find out as the kids set up their own little field trip to find the way out of their small situation.


It started like any other day at Walker Elementary School… if you were in Ms. Frizzle's class and were taking another one of her excitingly zany field trips. The only problem was… Ms. Frizzle wasn't in. They kids were expecting to make another one of her dramatic entrances, but there was no sign that she was around. They weren't even discussing what would be the central topic to this story. Usually, in every episode of the television show, there would be a simple science based topic that the field trip would center around, but since Ms. Frizzle wasn't around and there wasn't much set up for the kids to do, they didn't know what to expect… until the lights started getting faulty.

It sounded like something was short-circuiting in the closet. Carlos thought maybe the Frizz was in there, possibly up to something. He opened the door, but the closet was all dark, and the only light was coming from some electrical bolts. He turned the lights on, but as soon as he did, they completely short circuited, but he saw where the bolts were coming from.

"Hey guys," he called, "I think I figured it out. It's…"

It seemed that the Port-A-Shrinker was acting up, and as soon as the lights in the closet burned out, it set off its shrink beam, shrinking the whole class before it completely burned itself out.

"…the Port-A-Shrinker," he finished.

Soon enough, the kids were all the size of a 16.9 oz. Poland Spring water bottle. When they finally realized what happened, some of them started saying their usual catchphrases.

"Oh bad, bad, bad!" cried Keesha.

"What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?" cried Wanda.

"Is it just me, or have we shrunk down to the size of a 16.9 oz Poland Spring water bottle?" Ralphie wondered out loud.

"As Ms. Frizzle would say, 'What a surprise, we're a different size," Carlos remarked.

"Wow Carlos, for once, you didn't give us a bad pun," Wanda congratulated with sarcasm.

"Never mind that," Carlos dismissed. "We've got to get back to normal, but the Port-A-Shrinker's completely burned out!"

"And the only way to get back to our original sizes is the bus," Dorothy Ann added.

"But where is the bus?" Phoebe asked. "Ms. Frizzle hasn't come to class yet. And besides, if she wasn't going to be in class, she'd tell us, wouldn't she?"

The rest of the group had to agree with her, and thought of what could possibly be going on. Suddenly, Carlos had an idea.

"I have an idea," he announced. "Ms. Frizzle always leaves a to-do list on her desk besides a copy of the class schedule. Let's take a look."

"But how are we going to get up to there?" Keesha asked.

"Remember the time we were locked in Wanda's bathroom and tried stacking ourselves up to reach the doorknob?" Carlos suggested. "Let's try that again."

"But remember what happened last time?" Dorothy Ann reminded him, "We weren't standing tall enough."

"But we were only about two inches tall, then" Carlos pointed out. "We're taller than that now, so maybe we can get up there, this time."

"Do you really think so?" D.A. asked.

"It's worth a try," Ralphie agreed. "I'll be at the bottom again."

"I'm with you," Keesha offered.

"Me too," Phoebe added."

"We'll go up next," Wanda shouted, pulling Arnold along with her.

"We will?" Arnold asked, before Wanda dragged him to stand on Ralphie, Keesha, and Phoebe's shoulders.

"I'm next," Tim called, climbing up and planting his feet on Arnold and Wanda's shoulders.

At that moment, only Carlos and Dorothy Ann were left.

"You go," Carlos suggested. "I'll go on top and get the list."

"Who put you in charge?" Dorothy Ann asked.

"I got us into this mess, so I have to get us out," Carlos responded.

Sure enough, he was able to climb onto the desk and found the list. The top of the list read,

 _8:05 – Head to the Clinic._

The bottom of the list read,

 _If the class finds this list, they'll know to meet me there, so I won't need a substitute._

This seemed a little unorthodox for a third grade teacher, but that never came across Carlos's mind.

"8:05, that's when school started!" he exclaimed as he read the list.

He walked over to the edge of the desk and addressed everyone gathered at the bottom.

"Guys, we're headed over to the clinic," He announced.

"But how are we going to get outside?" Phoebe wondered.

"Through the window I just happened to open," Carlos replied. "Just like last time."

"But how are we going to get up there?" Wanda asked.

"The same way we got up here," Carlos replied.

"But the clinic is pretty far," Tim reminded him. "How are we going to get there fast enough when we're this small?

Carlos thought for a moment and had another idea.

"I have another idea," he announced. "Before we shrunk, I saw an wooden soapbox and an old pair of roller skates in the closet. Maybe we can tie the box to the skates and make a wagon."

"But how can we power it?" Dorothy Ann asked. "According to my research, most vehicles need some type of energy source to make them go. Cars and planes need fuel, trains need electricity,"

"But bikes and rowboats need manpower," Carlos added.

"Ahem," Dorothy Ann cleared her throat, as she frowned, folded her arms, and tapped her foot.

"You mean _person_ power, Carlos," she insisted.

"Either way, you get the idea, Dorothy Ann," Carlos dismissed.

"What's your point?" she asked.

"My point is, that we'll use our feet to make it go," Carlos replied. "You know, a la _The Flintstones_."

"But how fast will it go?" Dorothy Ann wondered.

"Fast enough, if we work together," Carlos explained. "You've seen a rowing team in a boat, right?"

"Right," Dorothy Ann agreed.

"With all those rowers, they can paddle the boat faster than they could with just one rower," he added.

"So if we all work together, we can make the wagon go faster than we could with just one of us!" Dorothy Ann realized. "But will it really be fast enough?"

"It'll be a start," Carlos replied. "Besides, don't we have to go downhill to get to the clinic, anyway?"

Dorothy Ann, saw his point.

"That's right," she realized. "And according to my research, light objects on wheels travel faster when they head downhill."

"As Ms. Frizzle would say, 'Great minds think alike, don't they?" Carlos smiled. "Come on, give me a hand getting the stuff down."

As Carlos and Dorothy Ann were busy climbing up the shelves to get the soapbox, roller skates, and additional supplies down, the other girls looked at the two of them working together so compatibly, which was unlike them, if you've ever seen them together.

"Check them out," Keesha pointed out. "The first time Carlos has a plan and D.A. just gets into it. _So_ into it."

"I can just see the sparks fly," Wanda thought, dreamily, before stealing a glance at Arnold. "And speaking of which."

"Huh?" Arnold stammered.

"Did you say something?"Carlos asked, as he and Dorothy Ann got down from the shelves and out of the closet.

"No," the girls replied, not willing to raise suspicion.

"Okay," Dorothy Ann dismissed.

She noticed a plastic steering wheel Carlos was carrying that fit perfectly into his small hands.

"What's that for?" she asked.

"You'll see," he replied.

The group made their way up to the window, assisting each other in carrying the supplies before finally making it to the sidewalk. They each punched a hole into the soapbox to place their feet, before adding holes to tie the roller skates in place. With the size of the soapbox and the positions of the foot holes, all they could do was tie one roller skate to the soap box. They carefully centered it, so the box would tip neither to the left nor to the right, nor to the back, nor to the front.

"Try and get the ropes behind the front wheels and ahead of the back wheels, so the skate won't slip out," Dorothy Ann suggested.

"Got it," Carlos responded.

They made sure to double every knot in the rope, so the book and roller skate wouldn't come apart.

"Wait," Carlos stopped them. "We've got to add the final touch."

He grabbed the plastic steering wheel from earlier and attached to the front right section of the car.

"Nice, huh?" He thought.

"You know you really didn't have to add that, Carlos," Dorothy Ann reminded him.

"I know," Carlos replied. "But look on the bright side, with a steering wheel on this thing, we can always _steer_ ourselves in the right direction."

"Carlos!" everyone berated, as they usually did whenever Carlos made one of his bad jokes.

Carlos immediately shrugged it off and got back to his own two feet.

"Time to take her for a test drive," he decided.

"Carlos, we're building a wagon, not a racecar," Dorothy Ann reminded him.

"I know," he reassured her. "I mean let's just see if it works."

He got into the front right side of the wagon, where the steering wheel was. Dorothy Ann got in the back left.

"How come you're all the way back there?" Carlos asked.

"If I sit back here on the left, while you sit up there on the right, we'll be able to make the wagon go without tipping over," Dorothy Ann explained.

They started pedaling with their feet, until they seemed to give enough power to make it go for a few inches before stopping. Carlos made the signal for everyone to come aboard the wagon. Dorothy Ann climbed into the front next to Carlos as everyone got in. Arnold sat right behind Dorothy Ann, until he felt a familiar girl tap him on the shoulder.

"Hey Arnold," Wanda called. "Mind if I squeeze in here next to you."

"Sure," Arnold stuttered. "I mean no. I mean of course – I – don't – mind – you – sitting – here…"

Arnold cleared his throat as the rest of the kids went aboard. Behind Arnold and Wanda were Ralphie and Keesha, and after them came Phoebe and Tim. Each sitting section was in front of a couple of nails helmeted in, that each had a rubber band spread across, so the kids would strap themselves in. They'd stick their legs into the holes and keep their backs against the nails as if they were the back to the seats on the bus. They'd wrap the rubber band around themselves and the nails a couple of times to stay secure. Naturally, Phoebe had this idea, as it was her concern whether or not the wagon was safe to ride in.

"Everybody strapped in?" Carlos asked.

"Yeah," Phoebe replied, doing the safety check from the back.

"Alright," Carlos ordered. "Let's rock and roll!"

The kids started pedaling as hard as they could, going down the sidewalk to the next block faster than they were expecting. They let themselves roll until they noticed they were slowing down about halfway across the next block.

"Try pedaling again," Carlos ordered.

They started to pedal again and they rolled about the same distance when they reached the next block before slowing down.

"Start pedaling again," Carlos commanded.

Yet again, they started pedaling with all their might, before rolling across for the same distance, having traveled for three blocks before slowing down again in the usual pattern.

"Pedal again," Carlos shouted.

Once again, they pedaled again and rolled for the same speed and distance before slowing down. Just as they got halfway across the fourth block, they noticed their legs were getting tired.

"I thought you said you had to go downhill to get to the clinic!" Wanda growled.

"Sure you do," Carlos promised. "It's just after this next block.

The other kids groaned, but knew they had to keep pedaling. As soon as they got to the fifth block, they let themselves just roll.

"That's it," Carlos pointed out.

As they got to the edge of the block and started slowing down, they noticed that it looked kind of steeper than it did when they were normal sized.

"Uh-oh," Dorothy Ann muttered.

"Hold on," Carlos called.

As the wagon rolled towards the edge of the hill, it started picking up speed, and a lot of it. The kids were all screaming and holding onto each other, especially Dorothy Ann holding onto Carlos, who kept his hands gripped on the steering wheel. Wanda, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying it. She was thrusting her hands in the air and screaming joyfully, while Arnold was clinging to her for dear life.

Eventually, they reached the bottom, but found they were still rolling. When they got to the edge of the road, they noticed it was sort of slanted, and that an even steeper- looking hill was up ahead. After letting out a squeak, Dorothy Ann closed her eyes tightly and held onto Carlos even tighter than she did before, her pigtails blowing in the breeze. Arnold did the same thing to Wanda, who was now screaming at the top of her lungs and thrusting her hands even higher than before.

"Now this is what I call the ride of my dreams!" she cried.

"I'm going to be sick. I'm going to be sick," Arnold kept muttering to himself.

When they came close to the bottom of the hill, Wanda could see their destination.

"There it is," she called. "There's the clinic!"

Everyone else begun to cheer, except for Dorothy Ann, who was still clinging tightly to Carlos. He kept cheering, until he had a rather disturbing epiphany.

"Um, D.A.," he called as he shook her.

"Yes," she replied with her eyes still closed.

"We've built and powered this wagon and brought it all the way to the clinic, but there's still one thing we haven't figured out yet," he explained, sounding worried.

"What's that?" she asked.

"How to stop this thing," he replied.

Dorothy Ann finally opened her eyes and clung to Carlos even tighter than before. Her arms were practically up to his neck as she screamed.

"We're going to hit the lamppost!" Ralphie shouted. "Look out!"

Everyone either screamed or closed their eyes, waiting for the impact, except for Wanda, who seemed to be enjoying it. Carlos closed his eyes and gripped the steering wheel tightly as they neared the lamppost they were about to crash into.

Soon enough, it came. The wagon had gone so fast, it flew head on into the lamppost and was smashed to smithereens. The impact sent the children flying up into the air and either onto the grass or back onto the pavement. Near the lamppost, all that was left was a pile of broken wood and a roller skate.

Carlos, who landed on the pavement was the first to stir and get up. He noticed Dorothy Ann was lying next to him and went to help her up.

"Dorothy Ann, are you okay?" he asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah… I'm fine," she faintly replied as she stirred.

As he helped her up and she came to, they were locked in each other's eyes for a few minutes, until Carlos remembered something.

"Where are the others?" He asked.

They took off to find the rest of the group and saw Tim and Phoebe perfectly safe on the grass, along with Ralphie and Keesha.

"I'm glad you guys are alright," Carlos greeted. "Where are the other two?"

He turned around and found Wanda lying on the pavement with her eyes wide open.

"Wanda!" Kesha cried. "Are you okay?! Say something!"

Wanda sat up smiling really hard.

"Wow!" She breathed out. "Let's do that again!"

"Not now," Carlos demanded. "We've got to get to the bus and get ourselves back to normal. But first, we need to find…"

Before he could finish, they could see a familiar looking arm sticking out from the pile of broken wood.

"…Arnold!" They finished.

They rushed over to the pile of wood and started digging Arnold out. Wanda grabbed him to try and wake him up.

"Arnold!" she cried, as her tears were swelling up. "Come on Arnold, wake up! Speak to me!"

She held him in her arms until he started stirring.

"I knew I should have stayed home today," he breathed out.

"You're alive!" she cried out as she embraced him.

As soon as Arnold came to, they saw the clinic up ahead, across the street in front of them.

"There it is," Dorothy Ann cried. "Our tiny troubles are finally over!"

She and the others started cheering, until they heard the sound of rushing traffic. They were now faced with a four lane roadway, with traffic signal above and no crosswalk, as the cars and trucks were rushing by.

"Oh well, we tried." Arnold dismissed as he started walking away.

But Carlos was there to stop him.

"We'll have to cross," he insisted.

"What?!" the other shouted as if he were crazy.

"And just how are we supposed to do that?" Keesha demanded. "They say 'cross at the green and not in between' but the only green on this street is for the cars."

"There's got to be some way to get across," Carlos muttered.

He glanced around until he heard Dorothy Ann say,

"Now _I've_ got an idea. Come on Carlos, this way."

Dorothy Ann pulled him to the direction of what she saw, and, naturally, the others followed. They kept running until they approached some small, orange traffic cones.

"Traffic cones?" Ralphie asked. "How are these supposed to help us?"

"Simple," Dorothy Ann explained. We'll hide under these traffic cones so the cars don't see us. When they see the cones, they'll have to get out of the way, so nobody gets hurt."

"Great idea," Ralphie replied. "Except, we can't reach the edges of the cones. It feels like you need a longer arm for that."

"And besides," Keesha added. "There are only four cones."

Carlos thought for a moment.

"But there are eight of us," He pointed out. "I know what we'll do!"

He whispered his idea to Dorothy Ann who simply replied.

"Carlos, that's brilliant!"

They turned to the rest of the group.

"Okay, here's the plan," Carlos started. "We'll each go in pairs. One of us stands on the left, like me, and the other stands on the right, like D.A."

They put their arms around each other.

"You each put an arm around your partner's shoulder or waist, and use your other arm to hold up the cone," he continued.

"We'll listen for oncoming traffic, and tell you when it's safe," Dorothy Ann added. "When we say 'go', you can go."

"But when we say 'drop', put the cone down and play _hermit crab_ ," Carlos finished.

" _Hermit crab_?" Phoebe asked.

"Hide under your cone and don't move any further," Carlos explained.

"At my old school, we never played _hermit crab_ ," Phoebe muttered, nervously.

"Remember, everyone gets a partner," Dorothy Ann reminded them. "I'm with Carlos."

Once again, Ralphie ended up going with Keesha and Phoebe with Tim.

"That leaves just you and me, Arnold," Wanda teased as Arnold simply gulped.

All four pairs of children each hid under a traffic cone and waited at the corner until the road was clear. When it was finally clear, Carlos gave the word.

"Okay, here's our chance," he announced. "Ready, set, go!"

The children started crossing the street, single file, hiding under the traffic cones. Dorothy Ann held onto Carlos as they both listened for oncoming traffic. Arnold was busy whimpering, while Wanda tried to get him to pull himself together. Keesha and Ralphie, along with Phoebe and Tim, were trying to stay neutral, but failing at it. Just as they neared the end of the first lane, Carlos heard a minivan coming.

"Drop!" he shouted.

The kids played hermit crab as the minivan narrowly swerved left, trying to avoid them, going on the curb and nearly hitting a fire hydrant in the process.

"Go!" Carlos shouted.

About halfway across, Carlos and Dorothy Ann reached the dividing yellow lines, but everyone else was still behind them and spread out. Soon enough, they heard two smaller cars coming.

"Drop!" Carlos shouted.

Arnold and Wanda dropped, along with Keesha and Ralphie, but Phoebe and Tim were still going.

"I said, 'Drop'!" Carlos reiterated.

Phoebe and Tim did as they were told, and the two smaller cars narrowly swerved in and out, trying their best to avoid hitting each other.

"Go!" Carlos shouted.

Soon enough, they were all across the yellow line and going across the other two lanes. As soon as they reached the last one, Carlos heard an even bigger sound coming in the other direction. It had to be a truck. It wasn't a large truck, but rather the kind that carried supplies to and from stores. If it were a tractor trailer, it would have been fatal.

"Drop!" Carlos shouted.

But as soon as they dropped, Carlos realized that the truck was closer than they thought. The others were far enough away, but it was coming right at Carlos and Dorothy Ann. He couldn't see it, but the sound of the truck was enough for him to figure out the driver was too busy to notice. Carlos and Dorothy Ann held onto each other tightly, expecting the worst. But much to their surprise, the truck went right over them. When they opened their eyes, they sighed in relief and got to the other side. The rest of the children were quick enough to follow and catch up before the next set of vehicles came rushing by.

After discarding the traffic cones, the group finally saw the bus up ahead in the parking lot. When they got there, they tapped on the doors, which just happened to open at the right time. Liz, was sitting in the driver's seat, looking for whoever tapped on the doors. She was ready to close them again, until she heard a voice call,

"Liz, down here!"

She went to look for the voice and found the children waiting on the lowest step. They explained everything to her and she fired up the bus to get them back to their original sizes, just as Ms. Frizzle was coming out the door. She seemed perplexed that her class hadn't shown up to meet her at the clinic.

"I wonder where they could be?" She muttered.

As she boarded the bus, she was surprised to find her entire class waiting for her, back on the bus. They were all in their original sizes, but she was totally unaware of everything that happened to them that morning.

"Well, good morning, class!" she greeted.

"Good morning, Ms. Frizzle," they all replied, happy to see her.

"What a superlative surprise!" she thanked as she took the driver's seat. "Did anything happen while I was gone?"

The children were all too excited to tell Ms. Frizzle about their self-designed, unsupervised, literally miniature field trip.

"We'll tell you on the way," Ralphie offered.

Ms. Frizzle laughed as she started the bus and headed back to the school.

Wanda and Arnold ended up sitting next to each other, and the experience she had that day, she was inclined to give him the noogies, and didn't mind if she did.

Carlos and Dorothy Ann sat next to each other, happy to have gone through everything they did this morning. But Dorothy Ann was happier about something else.

"Carlos," she started.

"Yeah, Dorothy Ann?" he stirred.

"Thanks," she offered. "For helping me up back there. You're the best."

"No problem," he smiled. "After all, we did have to fall flat on the sidewalk."

"Carlos!" she giggled.

Still, Dorothy Ann had to admit, after having to set up their own field trip, that seemed like a joke bad enough to end on as the bus drove back to school.

The End.


End file.
